Ivan Rakitić

[Gohan]

He should leave after this season or accept a role as a substitute.

 

[EdmondDantes]

That I don't know and it's frankly pointless to argue since it's impertinent and what matters is now, this season and the next.

Maybe we could have signed Vidal sooner but Bayern only wanted rid of him last summer.

Paulinho surprised me though. 10 goals, grit, muscle La Liga and Copa...and we broke even in the end.

 

[Leo_Messi]

That treble season bought him a couple more years than he should have imo, that and Valverde nudes.

It is an absolute disgrace. We played with 9 players yesterday as Coutinho and Rakitic were not on the pitch at all. As usual nowadays.

 

[xXKonan]

He's been a good servant who helped us achieve the treble and helped us transition away from Xavi who was sadly 34/35 years old. But since 2017 he had massively benefited from the fact the other CM options we had were nowhere near good enough to displace him from the XI, leading to believe by some to be some 4D Chess in player form in the Midfield and we would be completely worthless without him.

He's gotten smarter in some aspects but compared to 2014/15/16 Rakitic he's nothing more than a mere shadow of himself in a number aspects. He went from being a real workhorse in the Midfield proving the legs and energy to the Midfield to being a static CM who would rather play as a DM who doesn't have the legs to cover the ground we need like he use to.

Sure his decline and him starting to lose his legs isn't his fault but there seems to be some sort of arrogance to him that he can publicity come out and beg for a contract renewal and start most games because he knows Valverde won't drop him from the starting XI no matter how poor he can be.

With Arthur establishing himself and Vidal being also useful and Alena's stock quickly rising himself there's really no reason why Rakitic himself always has to be a starter in this day in age.

 

[Arizona Scott]

Switch roles with Vidal. Vidal is the starter and Rakitic is the rotation option. Simple as that. Vidal is meaner, faster, stronger, has better mentality and works harder. No brainer. Unless Rakitic is scoring golazos like vs Tottenham, he's a liability vs every team that is putting pressure on us.

Vidal has been terrible lately. I think the right thing is to conserve them both a lot more in la liga, and bring Vidal in about 65 minute mark every big match. Subbing for each other isn’t a punishment for bad play, just a smart use of veterans.

Nope, Rakitic plays the same with or without Busquets. We have 2 matches already where he was equally bad playing alone. Vs Sevilla and Valencia.

Rakitic very effective play was an important part of us bombing Sevilla just last week? Now 3 matches in 7 days isn't for him. Same is true for a bunch of our other vets, but Suarez most of all.

he and suarez are officially our problem.

If having to play 200 minutes in a week, yes they are our problem. We need to start playing Suarez, Rakitic, Vidal, Pique, and Alba much less. (maybe Messi and Busi a little less).

Going from Rakitic to FDJ is gonna be like going from a Fiat to a Ferrari, dawg.

We hope FDJ is that Ferrari. However it isn’t like anyone else (Arthur, Busi, Vidal, Alena, etc) is taking the ball at midfield and making an Iniesta, KDB or Pogba type run either. Not a unique issue to Rakitic.

do u think bale would have that empty net chance if raki was on pitch defending ? ?
vidal was standing in middle of pitch picking his nose and not tracking back.......
that is raki specialty. he is slow, but he would be in position to block pass.
that is the beauty of raki,,, he does little stuff no fans notice, but he is so vital to the team.
fans don't understand the importance of such player..... but coach like valverde and lucho do and love him.....

for barca simple minded fans arthur holding ball needlessly for 10 seconds and passing it a sideways is a wow, not raki playing good position with defensive awareness.

I agree with a lot of what you said in general. He is our best player in set pieces not named Pique, and is a smart and skilled player. Fickle group here, like they didn’t even watch the Sevilla match nor consider how many (too many) shifts certain players have put in. He wasn’t great like Busi and Arthur were yesterday (and all 3 made really careless plays withint he 1st 30), but he wasn’t terrible, his overall play was better than Coutinho, and Alena was terrible with the 15 minutes he got.
Arthur was great and both ends once he settled though, super pleased with his game against some of the best opposing and sneaky opponents he could possibly face. Arthur helps Busi and Rakitic both out a lot with his ability to move with and without the ball. Pretty clear Busi and Arthur are starters our big matches now, with Rakitic the other starter and likely a planned 65 minute sub for Vidal—big games at least.

This season it could have been Vidal but he has been poor since late December now and his best (most useful) games have been off the bench as well.
.

That just it, Vidal is a part time player too and with overuse gets worse, just like Rakitic. They play demanding positions for 30+ year olds, good we have both of them they can be kept to 90 minutes per week of intense play or less. Otherwise they and the team suffer.

…. His form has hit rock bottom and yet he's still guaranteed of a spot in the team every week. Which means he doesn't have to challenge himself to change and improve, he's far too comfortable when he should be a squad player here.
He should be earning his minutes and not the other way round.
.

Did you not remember his play vs Sevilla to help get us through to the Classico yesterday? Busi got a nice forced rest vs Valencia, and IMO it showed with how well Busi played for 90 (except that one very uncharacteristic TO that almost gave Real a goal, and similar to Rakitic similar FU). The bottom line is until this year (the joining of Arthur and Vidal) we havn’t had ways to not have him usually play 90 and start every match of importance. You can look at it like these 4 are “competing” with each other, I look at it like they care share the load and keep each other better and fresher for March and April.

He should leave after this season or accept a role as a substitute.

I agree that unless he accepts a bench role he should move on. If FDJ adapts anywhere near what we expect next years starting midfield includes him, Busi & Arthur. But that is next year, not this year. This year we have Rakitic and Vidal to play the other midfield spot when it matters.

 

[DonAndres]

Lol, it seems like people have redefined what it means to have a "good" or "not bad" performance when it comes to Rakitic. Short of losing every single ball and making very visible defensive errors that directly cost us goals, there will still be people who go around chirping "good game" or "decent".

He even lost plenty of balls yesterday and nearly gave up a goal, and people still think he played alright. And we're not even talking about offensive production, which was literally 0 yesterday. I miss the days when midfielders were judged for being a constant protagonist in possession, performing consistently over 90 minutes, and showing visible impact in everything they do.

With Rakitic, it's all about these "unseen, unappreciated" genius moments. Moments which are as elusive and mythical as Bigfoot.

 

[Kul_z]

do u think bale would have that empty net chance if raki was on pitch defending ? ?

vidal was standing in middle of pitch picking his nose and not tracking back.......

that is raki specialty. he is slow, but he would be in position to block pass.

that is the beauty of raki,,, he does little stuff no fans notice, but he is so vital to the team.

fans don't understand the importance of such player..... but coach like valverde and lucho do and love him.....

for barca simple minded fans arthur holding ball needlessly for 10 seconds and passing it a sideways is a wow, not raki playing good position with defensive awareness.

Arthur holding the ball when needed, relieving the pressure, not losing it, so other players can consolidate a bit, you didnt heard about xavi comparisons? Thats the one of the attributes he have thats completely new to our workhorse middlefielders. Rakitic defensive awareness is good, thats a fact, he's trying but man he is too slow or i dont know what, tired? He fucked up this season so many times already that in any other team he would be benched like 4 months ago. I dont know why is the problem to say that he is playing like shit right now, cause he is. I'd like to see how the fuck would team look with gala 11 without him. I cant fucking remember if we even played a single game without him

 

[Cule4life]

I predict you will be banned within a few weeks, also how did “scared Semedo” play?

Well turns out you were off by a few weeks

 

[Vilarrubi]

Well turns out you were off by a few weeks

has he gone???

 

[Joan]

Nooooooo... bring my man back

 

[Arizona Scott]

Lol, it seems like people have redefined what it means to have a "good" or "not bad" performance when it comes to Rakitic. Short of losing every single ball and making very visible defensive errors that directly cost us goals, there will still be people who go around chirping "good game" or "decent".

He even lost plenty of balls yesterday and nearly gave up a goal, and people still think he played alright. And we're not even talking about offensive production, which was literally 0 yesterday. I miss the days when midfielders were judged for being a constant protagonist in possession, performing consistently over 90 minutes, and showing visible impact in everything they do.

With Rakitic, it's all about these "unseen, unappreciated" genius moments. Moments which are as elusive and mythical as Bigfoot.

Which is fine as you apply the same standards to Busi, Arthur and Vidal. Call them out for their good games and bad, and keep the perspective of the run of games.

 

[Arizona Scott]

Which is fine as you apply the same standards to Busi, Arthur and Vidal. Call them out for their good games and bad, and keep the perspective of the run of games.

And I'll add Alena. If we want to talk about a sh*t show with the minutes they got. Just be fair to all players based on performances and collections of performances.

 

[Cule4life]

has he gone???

 

[DonAndres]

Which is fine as you apply the same standards to Busi, Arthur and Vidal. Call them out for their good games and bad, and keep the perspective of the run of games.

Is this serious? Those are the very standards that are applied to Busi, Arthur, and Vidal on a game by game basis. Only Rakitic is ever exempt from them.

Busi and Arthur won significantly more duels yesterday and Vidal won more in 30 minutes than Rakitic did in 60. Arthur and Vidal run around and constantly make their presence known in offense and defense every game that they play. Busquets is just a clearly superior version of Rakitic in defense, while also being the foundation of our buildup play. Vidal might not be a very technical player but he has great IQ for running off the ball and acting as a support player with his movement. He's always involved in transition plays in the final 3rd and acts as a passing target to open the game up.

Rakitic's contribution consisted of dumping the ball off to the right, and doing nothing. Or if he does, he does this pseudo-overlap as if he were a fullback, but is never actually open for the pass or is too slow to reach it (saw this happen multiple times with Semedo and Malcom). Basically what he used to do with Alves, dump the ball off and move out of the way and let the real offensive player go to work. Except back then he used to be way more productive as a support player in offense than he is today. Nowdays he'll make the occasional dart forward the way Cesc used to do and call it a day.

You don't have to reinvent standards of what makes a footballer elite to see what Arthur/Busi/Vidal bring to the table, and that is the difference.

 

[Arizona Scott]

Is this serious? Those are the very standards that are applied to Busi, Arthur, and Vidal on a game by game basis. Only Rakitic is ever exempt from them.

Busi and Arthur won significantly more duels yesterday and Vidal won more in 30 minutes than Rakitic did in 60. Arthur and Vidal run around and constantly make their presence known in offense and defense every game that they play. Busquets is just a clearly superior version of Rakitic in defense, while also being the foundation of our buildup play. Vidal might not be a very technical player but he has great IQ for running off the ball and acting as a support player with his movement. He's always involved in transition plays in the final 3rd and acts as a passing target to open the game up.

Rakitic's contribution consisted of dumping the ball off to the right, and doing nothing. Or if he does, he does this pseudo-overlap as if he were a fullback, but is never actually open for the pass or is too slow to reach it (saw this happen multiple times with Semedo and Malcom). Basically what he used to do with Alves, dump the ball off and move out of the way and let the real offensive player go to work. Except back then he used to be way more productive as a support player in offense than he is today. Nowdays he'll make the occasional dart forward the way Cesc used to do and call it a day.

You don't have to reinvent standards of what makes a footballer elite to see what Arthur/Busi/Vidal bring to the table, and that is the difference.

Rakitic vs Sevilla last week was way better than any match we have seen out of Vidal since 2018. Vidal has a lot more flaws than you think, more risk/rewards and sometimes those risk punish us when he misses a lunged tackle and we are short defending. FTI I am fine with a Rakitic/Vidal platoon, good for both players and the team.